The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11. THE SHIPPING WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8082, 11 April 1906, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11. THE SHIPPING WAR.

For some weeks vague rumors of an impending fierce fight between the large shipping companies trading between here and Hoine have been in circulation, but so carefully have the representatives of the companies interested guarded their utterances that it has been impossible to accurately guage the seriousness or otherwise of the position. Information to hand this morning, however, proves that the rumors have b#en well founded, and that a war of rates has broken out that bids fair to prove momentous in the annals of Colonial shipping, The parties in volved are the direct lines, namely, the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company and the New Zealand Shipping Company on the one hand, and the subsidised Federal - Houlder - Shire Line on the other. So far the Federal-Houlder-Shire steamers have worked the West of England servioe, leaving the London trade to the direct lines, and each keeping strictly to its own preserve. Sometime ago the action of the Federal Company in feeding the Yorkshire market with wool sent in through Manchester had the ett'ect of disturbing the operations of the direct steamers through London. They retaliated by sending in a quantity of wool through Hull, thus saving freight on the English railways, and enabling them to compete with the Federal Company's operations through London. The startlingly low passenger rates announced b/ the Federal Company, show that the fight is to be a severe one, Where it will end it is difficult to say ; on the face of it, it looks like developing into a fight for very existence. There is no doubt that the direct lines will accept the challenge of the subsidised company, and, as it will mean tremendous losses to all the companies involved, the question will probably be decided by the financial exhaustion of oiio side or the other.